What we did today. Since we’re staying in Silicon Valley, our first two-nighter for a while, we had to explore the computery things around. A geek pilgrimage was made to 1 Infinite Loop, Cupertino: the home of Apple. (As a contrast, Microsoft’s HQ is at One Microsoft Way.)

Nasa was next up, and we visited what we could of the NASA Ames Research Center, which is not a whole lot. No more tours of the facility (much has been decommissioned anyway) and unfortunately the immersive theatre was closed. So a few interesting exhibits and rovers to play with, but that was all.

The Computer History Museum was pretty fantastic, though. They have an Enigma machine(!), part of ENIAC, several CRAYs, many Macs, Commodores, ancient hard drives, tape drives, the world’s first RAID (Frankenraid) and so much more. Just north of the 101, west of the NASA Ames campus. Very knowledgeable guides show off all the cool gear, and it’s heavily recommended.

Oh, then shopping. Dungeon Siege, we’ll see how it goes; bought mostly to turn it into a reborn Ultima V. Enjoyed Neverwinter Nights already.

Hidden in the mazes of freeways and expressways just south of San Francisco are many restaurants, motels, hotels, university campuses, computer giants and upstarts. It’s an interesting place to spend a couple of days, to rediscover what a city has to offer after a long time away. Portland was cool, but you could walk around… familiar, easy. You drive here, fast, and it’s a different thing altogether. It’s like a very, very big suburb, with the interesting things you’d expect in a city. Because it is a city, squashed and stretched, run through with arteries carrying their precious cars.

Odd.

Time is now rapidly running away from us and we have just a few more nights after this one. The best part about the flight home is the seats we’ve requested: the two at the back of the plane with no third person adjacent. More room, more privacy. Making a sixteen-odd hour flight bearable.

Hopefully more from the road, otherwise from the other side.